The loading of bales of forage onto vehicles such as wagons or trucks is a common task encountered in agriculture. This task can be accomplished by one or more individuals where the bales are of moderate size, with weights ranging up to about 50 pounds. For larger bales, which have become common in modern agriculture, the loading and unloading of the bales onto vehicles for transport presents a task requiring mechanical devices.
A number of innovations have been developed relating to devices for loading hay bales and the like onto transport vehicles. The following U.S. patents are representative of some of those innovations.
Naaktgeboren, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,368,000 and 4,911,491, discloses a bale wagon with elevator apparatus and an apparatus for picking up multiple bales simultaneously.
Mailleaux et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,330, show a hydraulic device for lifting items that is mounted to a tractor loader.
Van Eecke et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,679, disclose a bale accumulator with a bale turning mechanism.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,612, Siebenga shows a tilt bed trailer with a hydraulic pick-up device to load large bales.
Front-end bale loaders are disclosed by Callahan in U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,111 and by Tilley in U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,716. Both use hydraulic arms to transfer bales to a vehicle bed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,274 by Cook shows a rotating boom mounted on a flat bed truck that picks up bales adjacent the truck bed and stacks them vertically on the bed. A push bar moves the stacked bales toward the rear of the bed. Once the bale is elevated, rotated, and positioned above the bed, it can only be lowered vertically toward the bed.
Thus, there exists an unmet need for a bale loading device that is capable of transferring large bales to a flat bed vehicle such as a wagon or truck for transport. The need also exists for a device that can stack bales one atop another, providing maximum use of the carrying area of such a transport vehicle. Likewise, the device should be operable by a single individual to maximize the economical benefits of the device.